In a stunning move Monday night, the MSAD 6 Board of Directors voted to cut the fiscal year 2005-2006 school budget by a single dollar.
“Holy mackerel, what are they thinking?” was Standish Town Manager Gordon Billington’s response. “I’m speechless, flabbergasted. I don’t understand it – they need to come in with an alternative budget.”
The Board was required to revisit the budget because Article Four of the district referendum, which requested the appropriation of nearly $4 million in additional local funds, was defeated in the June 14 election. That Article had failed approval in Standish with 258 people voting yes and 294 no, as well as district-wide with 750 yes and 801 no.
Though the Board at Monday’s meeting initially discussed two other motions of budget reduction amounts – the first to cut $170,000 and the second to cut $120,000 – both failed to pass.
The voting breakdown on the motion for the $170,000 cut was Shawn Cram of Hollis, Donna Dulude of Limington, David Hopkins of Standish, Sandra Plummer of Buxton, and Oleg Svetlichny, of Frye Island voting yes, and Karen Connary of Buxton, Michael Delcourt of Standish, Charlotte Dufresne of Limington, Cynthia Hazelton of Buxton, Charles Murray of Hollis, Jeffrey Richardson of Standish, and James Smith, Jr. of Buxton voting no.
For the $120,000 cut, the breakdown was Connary, Dufresne, Dulude, Murray, and Svetlichny voting yes and Cram, Delcourt, Hazelton, Hopkins, Plummer, Richardson, and Smith voting no.
Bruce Avery, of Standish, and Mary McNeil, of Steep Falls, were not present.
With each of the first two votes ending in defeat, Vice Chairman Cram proposed the single dollar decrease because, according to Cram, “it’s a good budget and (Article Four) only failed by 50 votes out of 1,600” district-wide.
When the board took a vote on the motion, the one dollar decrease passed, with the three Standish directors who were present – Delcourt, Hopkins, and Richardson – voting no, along with Smith of Buxton.
Although he does admit being concerned about the impression it may give the voters, Cram said they would have to cut staff if they reduced the amount of the budget
Standish Director Michael Delcourt, who voted against the single dollar decrease, feels the vote sends a resoundingly negative message to the District’s residents. “It’s a bunch of bunk – an insult to the public.”
But Chairperson Oleg Svetlichny, who is also chairman of the budget committee, said that, by this vote, “the Board has articulated that this money is for educational purposes.
“The 2005-2006 budget was developed using a needs-based budget approach,” Svetlichny said. “This was a break away from the traditional incremental line-by-line changes. A needs-based budget, by definition, is very lean.”
He also praised the EPS tax relief, saying that all five towns in the MSAD 6 district would have seen double-digit tax increases or drastic cuts in educational programs if it were not for the new EPS funding.
Svetlichny believes there was some confusion among voters at the June 14 election on the wording of Article Four. He said the Board wants to educate the public in the weeks before the vote on the amended Article.
Cram agrees. He said they purposely held up sending out the district’s newsletter, Focus on Six, so they could put in extra information on the budget.
But Director and former Chairperson Bruce Avery, who had drawn fire from some Standish residents in the past because of his support of the budget, disagreed with the Board’s decision.
“My fear is that people will look at this as if they’ve been rebuffed,” said Avery. “I know it’s not the Board’s intent, but it may be the consequence.”
Avery, whose vote, had he been present, would not have changed the outcome, went on to say that he didn’t “think the $120,000 cut would have had a significant effect on the children and it would have gone a long way to show they were trying to reduce the impact of the budget on the citizens of Standish.”
The public will have their chance to react to the dollar budget cut at the informational meeting on July 18 at Bonny Eagle Middle School. The referendum vote on the amended Article Four is scheduled for July 26.
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